STAGE STRUCK {LILO, EVA MARIE SAINT, PAT ROONEY II, ROSALIND RUSSELL, EDITH ADAMS, SHIRLEY BOOTH, ARTHUR SCHWARTZ} (RADIO)
Summary
One in this series of programs about the world of theater, hosted by Mike Wallace, featuring interviews, scenes, and musical numbers from current and upcoming productions. This edition includes the following segments: Mike Wallace visits the Shubert Theater, where the overture from Cole Porter's smash hit "Can-Can" is performed; producer Cy Feuer recalls his discovery in Paris of "Can-Can" star Lilo, whom he flew to the U.S. for auditions on both coasts; Lilo sings "I Love Paris"; Wallace chats with Lilo in her dressing room and she recalls her nervousness during "Can-Can" tryout performances in Philadelphia and explains the significance of her "chicken talisman"; Lilo then performs the finale of "Can-Can" with Gwen Verdon and the chorus; next, at Sardi's restaurant, William Morris agent Charles Baker explains the role of an actor's agent and predicts a considerable future for a young client named Eva Marie Saint; Wallace visits Saint at her apartment and she discusses her career to date and her upcoming Broadway debut in Horton Foote's "The Trip to Bountiful"; Saint and Wallace visit seventy-three year-old theater veteran Pat Rooney who offers advice to the up-and-coming actress and sings an a cappella version of "More I Cannot Wish You," the song he currently performs on Broadway in "Guys and Dolls"; then from Winter Garden Theater, where the hit musical "Wonderful Town" has playing for a full season, Wallace introduces the show's opening number "Christopher Street" and chats with star Rosalind Russell, who expresses her delight at the show's good reviews and discusses transferring her character of "Ruth" from the 1940 film "My Sister Eileen" to the musical stage; Russell and co-star Edith (Edie) Adams then perform the duet, "Ohio" from the musical; Wallace discusses a tribute mounted by the American National Theatre and Academy to the sixty-year-old Empire Theatre which is being demolished to make way for an office building; Wallace interviews the stars of the tribute Edna Wallace Hopper (who as Mabel Douglas was the star of "The Girl I Left Behind Me," the first play produced at the Empire in 1893) and Shirley Booth (the very last star to grace the Empire's stage in "The Time of the Cuckoo"); Hooper recalls Broadway at the turn of the century and Booth comments on the sadness of the great theater's demise and, by way of tribute to the Empire, introduces a recording of Basil Rathbone, reciting Prospero's "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" speech from "The Tempest"; producer Max Gordon and Martin Beck Theater manager Louis Lotito give testimony to the current vitality of the live theater; Arthur Schwartz, composer and president of the League of New York Theatres, touts the success of efforts to resuscitate the theater, noting that there have been many more hits this season than in recent years and more original New York casts out on the road; and Wallace concludes by playing a recording of Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan, and Oscar Levant singing Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz's "That's Entertainment" from the soundtrack of the film "The Band Wagon." Includes promos; commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: October 2, 1953 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 01:00:40
- COLOR/B&W: N/A
- CATALOG ID: R78:0204
- GENRE: Radio - Music; Radio - Variety; Radio - Talk/Interviews
- SUBJECT HEADING: Music; Musical revues, comedies, etc. - Excerpts; Plays - Excerpts; Theater; Variety
- SERIES RUN: CBS - Radio series, 1953-1954
- COMMERCIALS:
- Radio - Promos - "Our Miss Brooks"
- Radio - Promos - "Saturday Night Country Style"
- Radio - Promos - "The Radio Hall of Fame"
CREDITS
- Howard G. Barnes … Producer
- Bruno Ziroto … Director
- Bob Corcoran … Writer
- Mike Wallace … Host
- Adams, Edith (See also: Adams, Edie) … Singer
- Lilo … Singer, Guest
- Rooney, Pat, II … Singer, Guest
- Rosalind Russell … Singer, Guest
- Gwen Verdon … Singer
- Basil Rathbone … Performer
- Charles Adams Baker … Guest
- Shirley Booth … Guest
- Cy Feuer … Guest
- Max Gordon … Guest
- Hopper, Edna Wallace (Mrs. Albert O. Brown) … Guest
- Louis A. Lotito … Guest
- Eva Marie Saint … Guest
- Arthur Schwartz … Guest
- Fred Astaire
- Jack Buchanan
- Nanette Fabray
- Oscar Levant